By Clint Thompson
Alabama specialty crops that are planted are in desperate need of water. It may be a while before that happens and it concerns Katelyn Kesheimer, Auburn University assistant professor and Extension specialist.
“The crops that are in the ground, like corn, they’re thirsty. It’s also impacting weed control,” Kesheimer said. “There’s no rain to activate the (pre-emergence herbicide). It’s not great. We definitely need some more rain to get things going, and I fear (this week) is going to be tough because we’re going to be in the 90s and no rain is in sight.”
The highest chance for rainfall over the next two weeks in Auburn, Alabama, is just 44% on Sunday, according to weather.com. It’s a similar forecast for Dothan, Alabama, where the best chance for rain is this weekend at 40%.
“Another thing is people are spending so much money on input costs in general, from fertilizer to seed to everything else, it would be so awful if you can’t get a crop up or it’s hindered by a lack of rain right now. (Sweet corn’s) looking like it needs a drink of water. I talked to someone who said they already had tasseling sweet corn,” Kesheimer said. “We’ve started picking up some armyworms in field corn. They’re all the way up in North Alabama. If it stays this dry, then their populations might have a chance to really take off sooner than later.
“I was in Madison County, which is North Alabama the other day, and I was finding late N-star armyworms. We’re a couple of weeks ahead of normal for that. I think the warm winter definitely sped things up a little bit. It sounds like there’s treatable populations in the southern areas like Florida and Louisiana.”
